"On the night of August 29, 1857, in a moonlit country grove in central Illinois, a man named James Metzger was savagely beaten by two assailants. Two days later he died and his attackers, James Norris and William Armstrong, were arrested and charged with his murder. Tried separately, Norris was convicted first. As William "Duff" Armstrong waited for his trial, his own father died. Jack Armstrong's deathbed wish was that Duff's mother, Hannah, engage the best lawyer possible to defend Duff.

The best person Hannah could think of was a friend, a prominent lawyer from Springfield by the name of Abraham Lincoln. Though busy with his political career, Lincoln accepted the case, thus beginning one of the oddest side-trips taken by the future president on his journey to immortality. Lincoln's defense of this case is legendary. It was said that he saved an innocent man from the gallows, but what really happened? How much did the moon reveal? Did Lincoln believe that Duff was guilty? Did he - as was long ago charged - actually suppress evidence?

Was he himself guilty of witness tampering?"--BOOK JACKET.